Software
Introduction to CNC (Computer Numeric Control) software
A few years ago an engineer would type code directly to a CNC machine, a very time consuming process. Thankfully it is not done that way today. The software does all that hard work for you.
The software needed for to run a CNC machine is a CAD (Computer Aided Design) program and a CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) program.
CAD
In the CAD program the drawing is created. For example if we wanted a square, click on the square icon and enter its positron and size.
CAM
The CAM program controls the tool paths, taking our example of a square, we can with the CAM choice to cut inside or outside of the line, to produce the desired result.
Click on the Outside/inside button then click on outside button
A tool path is produced with lead-in lead-out and roll-round corners. This information is then sent to the machine.